Indalecio Prieto Tuero (30 April 1883 – 11 February 1962) was a Spanish politician, a minister and one of the leading figures of the
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party
The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español ; PSOE ) is a social-democraticThe PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources:
*
*
*
* political party in Spain. The PSOE has been in gove ...
(PSOE) in the years before and during the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...
.
Early life
Born in
Oviedo in 1883, his father died when he was six years old. His mother moved him to
Bilbao
)
, motto =
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, mapsize = 275 px
, map_caption = Interactive map outlining Bilbao
, pushpin_map = Spain Basque Country#Spain#Europe
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in 1891. From a young age, he survived by selling magazines in the street. He eventually obtained work as a
stenographer at the daily newspaper ''La Voz de Vizcaya'', which led to a position as a copy editor and later a journalist at the rival daily ''
El Liberal
''El Liberal'' was a Spanish liberal newspaper published in Madrid between 1879 and 1936. It was one of the leading papers of Spain under the Restoration.
Between 1890 and 1906, ''El Liberal'' was edited by Miguel Moya (1856–1920), a leading S ...
.'' He eventually became the director and owner of the newspaper.
In 1899, at the age of 16, he had joined the PSOE. As a journalist in the first decade of the 20th century, Prieto became a leading figure of
socialism
Socialism is a left-wing Economic ideology, economic philosophy and Political movement, movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to Private prop ...
in the
Basque Country.
Entering politics
Spain's neutrality in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
greatly benefited Spanish industry and commerce, but those benefits were not reflected in the workers' salaries. The period was one of great social unrest, culminating on August 13, 1917 in a revolutionary
general strike. The government's fear of unrest like that of the
February Revolution that year in
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
(the
October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key mome ...
there was still to come) caused it used the military to put down the general strike. Members of the strike committee were arrested in
Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...
. Having been involved in organizing the strike, Prieto fled to
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
before he could be arrested.
He did not return until April 1918, when he had been elected to the
Spanish Congress of Deputies
The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid.
It has 350 members elect ...
.
[Thomas, Hugh. ''The Spanish Civil War'' Penguin Books.London. 2003. p. 40] Very critical of the actions of the government and army during the
Rif War
The Rif War () was an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 between Spain (joined by History of France, France in 1924) and the Berbers, Berber tribes of the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco.
Led by Abd el-Krim, the Riffians at ...
, or "War of Melilla" (1919–1926), Prieto spoke out strongly in the Congress after the
Battle of Annual
The Battle of Annual was fought on 22 July 1921 at Annual, in northeastern Morocco, between the Spanish Army and Rifian Berbers during the Rif War. The Spanish suffered a major military defeat, which is almost always referred to by the Spanish ...
(1921). He also addressed the likely responsibility of the king in the imprudent military actions of General
Manuel Fernández Silvestre
Manuel Fernández Silvestre (December 16, 1871 – July 22, 1921) was a Spanish general.
Silvestre was the son of a lieutenant colonel of artillery, Victor Fernández and Eleuteria Silvestre. In 1889 he enrolled in the Toledo Infantry Academy ...
in the
Melilla
Melilla ( , ; ; rif, Mřič ; ar, مليلية ) is an autonomous city of Spain located in north Africa. It lies on the eastern side of the Cape Three Forks, bordering Morocco and facing the Mediterranean Sea. It has an area of . It was par ...
command zone.
Prieto was opposed to
Francisco Largo Caballero
Francisco Largo Caballero (15 October 1869 – 23 March 1946) was a Spanish politician and trade unionist. He was one of the historic leaders of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) and of the Workers' General Union (UGT). In 1936 and 19 ...
's line of partial collaboration with the dictatorship of
Miguel Primo de Rivera
Miguel Primo de Rivera y Orbaneja, 2nd Marquess of Estella (8 January 1870 – 16 March 1930), was a dictator, aristocrat, and military officer who served as Prime Minister of Spain from 1923 to 1930 during Spain's Restoration era. He deepl ...
. He had bitter confrontations with both men.
In August 1930, despite the opposition of party leader
Julián Besteiro Fernández, Prieto participated in the
Pact of San Sebastián. The broad coalition of republican parties proposed doing away with the Spanish monarchy. In that matter, Prieto was supported by Largo Caballero's wing of the party, as the latter believed that the fall of the monarchy was necessary so that socialism could rise to power.
Second Spanish Republic
When the
Second Spanish Republic
The Spanish Republic (), commonly known as the Second Spanish Republic (), was the form of government in Spain from 1931 to 1939. The Republic was proclaimed on 14 April 1931, after the deposition of King Alfonso XIII, and was dissolved on 1 ...
was proclaimed on April 14, 1931, Prieto was named finance minister in the provisional government, presided by
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora
Niceto Alcalá-Zamora y Torres (6 July 1877 – 18 February 1949) was a Spanish lawyer and politician who served, briefly, as the first prime minister of the Second Spanish Republic, and then—from 1931 to 1936—as its president.
Early life
...
.
As Minister of Public Works in the 1931–1933 government of
Manuel Azaña
Manuel Azaña Díaz (; 10 January 1880 – 3 November 1940) was a Spanish politician who served as Prime Minister of the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1933 and 1936), organizer of the Popular Front in 1935 and the last President of the Repu ...
, he continued and expanded the policy of
hydroelectric projects that had been begun during the Primo de Rivera dictatorship, as well as the ambitious plan of infrastructural improvements in Madrid, such as the new
Chamartín railway station and the tunnel under Madrid linking it to
Atocha railway station
Madrid Atocha ( es, Estación de Madrid Atocha), also named Madrid Puerta de Atocha–Almudena Grandes, is the first major railway station in Madrid. It is the largest station serving commuter trains ( ''Cercanías''), regional trains from the s ...
. Most of those works that would not be completed until after the 1936–1939
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, link ...
.
Unlike Largo Caballero, he opposed the
general strike and the
failed armed rising in October 1934, but he again fled to France to escape possible prosecution. Before the republic, Prieto had arguably maintained a more radical line than Largo Caballero, but he would now be identified as a relative moderate and opposed Largo Caballero's more revolutionary tendency.
Prieto gave a thrilling campaign speech in
Cuenca on 1 May 1936, prior to the 3 May repetition of the February 1936 election in the district in which the Popular Front would face among the right-wing rival
José Antonio Primo de Rivera
José Antonio Primo de Rivera y Sáenz de Heredia, 1st Duke of Primo de Rivera, 3rd Marquess of Estella (24 April 1903 – 20 November 1936), often referred to simply as José Antonio, was a Spanish politician who founded the falangist Falang ...
and, after the resignation of General
Francisco Franco as candidate,
Manuel Casanova
Manuel F. Casanova is the SmartState Endowed Chair in Childhood Neurotherapeutics and a professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville. He is a former Gottfried and Gisela Kolb Endowed Chair in ...
. He brought
Regenerationist memories and proposed
Keynesian
Keynesian economics ( ; sometimes Keynesianism, named after British economist John Maynard Keynes) are the various macroeconomic theories and models of how aggregate demand (total spending in the economy) strongly influences economic output an ...
measures to develop the domestic market of the country. In words directed towards the firebrand faction of Largo Cabrello, Prieto asked for moderation, discipline and the disregarding of revolutionary excesses that would put the democratic government in peril. The speech in which Prieto also displayed a deep sense of patriotism (he claimed to "carry Spain within his heart" and "in the marrow of his bones") was celebrated by the republican press, and it was received well even by José Antonio, then in prison. However, it was met with hostility among the radicals, deepening the rupture within the party.
Spanish Civil War
After the beginning of the Civil War, when news of the ruthless and systematic executions of Loyalists by the Nationalists, as part of
General Mola's policy of instilling terror in their ranks, began to filter to the areas held by the government, Prieto made a fervent plea to Spanish republicans on 8 August in a radiocast:
However, a couple of weeks after those words, the
Modelo Massacre took place in Madrid, much to the dismay of many Popular Front leaders. Saddened, Prieto is recorded as expressing his pessimism with these words: "with this brutality we have lost the war".
In September 1936, after the fall of
Talavera de la Reina
Talavera de la Reina () is a city and municipality of Spain, part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. Its population of 83,303 makes it the second most populated municipality of the province of Toledo and the fourth largest in the ...
, in
Toledo Province
Toledo is a province of central Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile–La Mancha. It is bordered by the provinces of Madrid, Cuenca, Ciudad Real, Badajoz, Cáceres, and Ávila. Its capital is the city of Toledo.
...
, to the rebels, Largo Caballero became the head of the government, and Prieto became Minister of Marine and Air.
After the May 3–8, 1937 events in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
in which the
communists
Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...
and the government forces tried to establish control over the
Workers' Party of Marxist Unification (POUM) and the
anarchist Confederación Nacional del Trabajo
The Confederación Nacional del Trabajo ( en, National Confederation of Labor; CNT) is a Spanish confederation of anarcho-syndicalist
Anarcho-syndicalism is a political philosophy and anarchist school of thought that views revolutionar ...
(CNT), the government of Largo Caballero was replaced by that of
Juan Negrín
Juan Negrín López (; 3 February 1892 – 12 November 1956) was a Spanish politician and physician. He was a leader of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( es, Partido Socialista Obrero Español, PSOE) and served as finance minister and ...
, with Prieto being Minister of Defense. Lacking support from the
democratic powers, such as
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
and the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
, the Spanish Republic was subject to severe
international isolation during Prieto's last ministry in Spain. Maritime access for
Soviet
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...
material aid was effectively cut off by the attacks of
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
submarines, and the French border remained closed.
After the defeat of the
Spanish Republican Armed Forces
The Spanish Republican Armed Forces ( es, Fuerzas Armadas de la República Española) were initially formed by the following two branches of the military of the Second Spanish Republic:
*Spanish Republican Army (''Ejército de la República Espa ...
on the northern front in October 1937, he offered his resignation, which was rejected. Prieto finally left the government after the March 1938 defeat on the
Aragon
Aragon ( , ; Spanish and an, Aragón ; ca, Aragó ) is an autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. In northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces (from north to sou ...
front after an escalating dispute with the communists.
Exile
He refrained from active political life for the remainder of the war,
exiling himself to
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
. In 1945, toward the end of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, he was one of those who attempted to form a republican government-in-exile and hoped to reach an accord with the
monarchist
Monarchism is the advocacy of the system of monarchy or monarchical rule. A monarchist is an individual who supports this form of government independently of any specific monarch, whereas one who supports a particular monarch is a royalist. ...
opposition to
Francisco Franco, the ruler of Spain since the end of the Civil War, with a view to restoring Spanish democracy.
[Beevor, Antony. ''The battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939''. Penguin Books. London. 2006. p. 425] The failure of that initiative led to his definitive retirement from active politics. He died in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
in 1962.
In Mexico, he wrote several books, such as ''Palabras al viento'' (''Words in the Wind'', 1942), ''Discursos en América'' (''Discourses in America'', 1944) and at the end of his life, ''Cartas a un escultor: pequeños detalles de grandes sucesos'' (''Letters to a Sculptor: Small Details of Great events'', 1962).
Positions
Supporting of the notion of further devolution to the Basque Provinces and
Navarra
Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...
, Prieto was greatly opposed to separatism as well as towards the plans of the
Basque nationalists
Basque nationalism ( eu, eusko abertzaletasuna ; es, nacionalismo vasco; french: nationalisme basque) is a form of nationalism that asserts that Basques, an ethnic group Indigenous peoples, indigenous to the western Pyrenees, are a nation an ...
in the draft of the Estella Statute, fearing the prospect of the territory becoming a "reactionary
Gibraltar
)
, anthem = " God Save the King"
, song = " Gibraltar Anthem"
, image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg
, map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe
, map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green
, mapsize =
, image_map2 = Gib ...
and a clerical stronghold".
See also
*
Spanish Republican Army
The Spanish Republican Army ( es, Ejército de la República Española) was the main branch of the Armed Forces of the Second Spanish Republic between 1931 and 1939.
It became known as People's Army of the Republic (''Ejército Popular de la Rep ...
References
Bibliography
*
Beevor, Antony. ''The battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War 1936–1939.'' Penguin Books. London. 2006.
*
* Graham, Helen. ''The Spanish Civil War. A very short introduction.'' Oxford University Press. New York. 2005.
*
* Jackson, Gabriel. ''The Spanish Republic and the Civil War, 1931–1939.'' Princeton University Press. 1967. Princeton.
*
*
* Thomas, Hugh. ''The Spanish Civil War.'' Penguin Books. London. 2001.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Prieto, Indalecio
1883 births
1962 deaths
People from Oviedo
Spanish Socialist Workers' Party politicians
Economy and finance ministers of Spain
Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Spanish Restoration
Members of the Congress of Deputies of the Second Spanish Republic
Spanish people of the Spanish Civil War (Republican faction)
Exiles of the Spanish Civil War in Mexico
Defence ministers of Spain
Exiled Spanish politicians
Government ministers during the Second Spanish Republic
Politicians from Bilbao
Politicians from Asturias